A bagger built to break the sound barrier

If you’re lucky, you’ve got at least one friend like this guy. You know, the one who’s always the ring leader, the one with the mad glint in his eye, always the center of attention, talking a little bit louder – OK, a lot louder – than everyone else, but unlike some people who behave the same way and seem obnoxious, this guy pulls it off. It’s the gravitational pull of his personality. Everybody gets along with him and goes along with him and, every so often, gets in trouble with him (though not as frequently as they did 10 years ago). Still, when it’s all over but for the storytelling, he wraps the narrative around all the participants, making the tale – and by extension, everyone involved – larger than life.

Victory set out to build a bike for that charismatic guy. He wouldn’t ride a subtle bike. It would be flashy. And loud. And when necessary, it would kick some ass.

Yes, the X-1 looks like a Magnum, but it’s so much more. Dare we say they turned it up to 11?

These days, custom baggers are the bikes attracting the extroverted type of cruiser rider. Last year, Victory took the Cross Country (a motorcycle that, when in the Tour configuration, has the chops to chase horizons and take 5,000 Mile Test Ride Editor, John Burns, through the Great American West) and slammed the rear an inch lower and bumped the front wheel to 21 inches. Since that wasn’t enough, a six speaker, 100 W sound system was inserted into the fork-mounted fairing, and Victory’s styling department created a choice of three bold custom paint schemes. When they stepped back and saw that it was good, they named it Magnum and let it loose on an unsuspecting public at a Las Vegas introduction. Only they didn’t take any time off to rest.

Tonight, March 7, 2015, in Daytona Beach, Florida, Victory unveiled an even more over-the-top version of an already over-the-top motorcycle. Call it the big brother of the Magnum. The Magnum X-1 picks up where its sibling left off. If 100W of sound is good, 200W is better. Having it come from behind the rider turns the X-1 into a mobile surround sound system. Each saddlebag has a 6×9 speaker with a 1.2 in. tweeter grafted into its lid, and the rear channels get 100W of their own power, bringing the total number of speakers to 10 – enough to beat wind and exhaust noise into submission.

Located in a prime listening position, the 6×9 speakers put out enough power to fill a small concert venue.

Doubling the Magnum’s power output wasn’t enough, though. The X-1 also receives its own loud paint scheme. Bright read striping covers a glossy black and platinum base colors. As with the Magnum, the bag hardware and engine cowling are color matched, as are the close-outs between the bags and the fenders. The 21 in. front hoop gets an upgrade, though. Specially designed wheels cut from a single billet of aluminum have glossy black paint to highlight the machined design of the spokes. A smoked lens covers the cool LED headlight, which Victory claims 75% brighter than an incandescent unit.

Add all this to the stout frame and powerful engine of the Cross Country, and you’ve got an urban trawler that Victory claims can easily go head-to-head with the competition. We’ll have to wait on that to test for ourselves, but what we do know is that, while the Cross Country has always been a weapon pointed directly at Harley-Davidson’s best selling model, the Street Glide, the X-1 has its sights set on the Street Glide CVO and its updated for 2015 Boom audio system, which in a spec-sheet battle features 12 speakers and 300W of power. However, there is a significant price difference between the CVO and the X-1 ($36,349 and $24,499, respectively). We’re thinking that this could be the first shot of the motorcycle stereo wars. So, we clearly will need to investigate further as soon as the X-1 is available.

Bitchin’ billet wheels!

When considering the value of the X-1, Victory states that the X-1’s parts can be fit to the Magnum. However, matching a Magnum to the X-1 on a component to component level would cost the owner $2,000 more than the X-1 in parts alone, before the labor of installation is considered. Yeah, selling a premium edition motorcycle on its value may go against the image, but hey, if the buyer can save a little money, who’s gonna complain.

So, you may be wondering about the significance of the X-1 designation. Well, the marketing theme for the Magnum X-1 is focused on breaking the sound barrier. Aeronautical buffs probably know where this is going, now. When Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier back in 1947, he was piloting the Bell X-1 experimental aircraft. However, Victory’s PR department isn’t done with the whole sound barrier motif. About 15 minutes after this article went live, the Stone Temple Pilots took the stage at the Blue Moon Saloon on Daytona’s Main St. to celebrate the unveiling of the X-1 in a loud and very public way.

Although no on sale date was available at press time, Victory has stated that the Magnum X-1 is an early release 2016 model which means it should be in dealerships sometime during the 2015 riding season.

Victory Dealer Price Quote

Suggested Readings

Victory Communities

Gee…. another page from the MoCo playbook! Change the tin and up the power (of the stereo that is). C’mon Polaris, you can do better than this! Let Indian go head to head with HD and let Victory lead the way with innovative performance (not radio wattage!), not another HD wannnabee.

Craig Hoffman

Agree. Polaris is in a unique position to compete with 2 distinct brands. To be fair, the Vic engine is a good one – superior to HD in performance, but it has been around awhile.

Would love to see the Indian brand carry the HD competitor torch, and Vic come out with modern designs, unshackled by the “heritage issue.” I suppose doing all that would be prohibitively expensive. Would be cool to see Vic come out with a full line of bikes though, not just big V-Twins. Even Harley is edging in that direction now, with their 750 Street line, which sports modern (if budget oriented) design. Of course Indian has their very good Scout too. Would like to see some “Scout thinking” applied to the Victory brand.

As for this bike, not my cup of tea. My bike’s function is not to impress others, it’s function is to impress me. This bike reminds me of the annoying “look at me” kid who was always vying for attention in High School.

Kevin

If they really want to compete with the CVO Streetglide they are going to have to do something to address the 106 vs 110
Doubling the stereo amplifier power and saying we ready to compete is way too lame

Auphliam

If they want to compete with the 110, they can always go back to the 100 or 92 LOL

Old MOron

Well, it’s not bad prose, but the first ten lines of this story read more like targeted marketing than journalism. Wait a minute, the whole article is feels like marketing. Those aren’t MO’s pictures. They were placed by Victory. “Be the cool guy riding his Magnum X-1 to the nightclub.”

Nothing against you, Evans, but I hate it when MO does this. Fu’king VerticalScope!

Evans Brasfield

I understand your point. At the same time, we’d be negligent if we didn’t cover the Magnum X-1’s unveiling. That’s why we label it a preview. We certainly don’t want anyone to think we’ve done more than possibly seeing the bike in person and reading the information sheet the manufacturer provided us. So, what I’m left with is just trying to tell a story with the information I have and not make it read like the same press release every other publication was given. Sometimes, I’m more successful than others. I think I know where you stand on this story.

From my end, I’d much rather deliver a report after riding it – at Bike Week – instead just writing a new product announcement in my office at home.

12er

New Condom? Oh, rolling Moto Jewelry, nvm… Though I did sorta go to the dark side this weekend. Demo’d a Diavel, cant believe how much I enjoyed it, but dont think my once broken back can handle the seating for long. On the other hand, it was fun pretending to be Judge Dredd for a bit.

nickatnyt

That’s a cool looking Street Glide…..

sgray44444

The styling and paint remind me of ugly pro-street drag cars from the 80s (many of which were also more show than go). I’m with some of the others on this: let Indian compete with HD, and start building some real modern motorcycles, Victory. And lose the George-Jetson styling, which is hideous in every way.

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